Apple is looking to patch things up with a nagging Snow Leopard problem without using a "patch" at all. The computer giant is partial to different language in speaking to the matter. As a result, Apple has come out with a "performance update" to correct a feature in Snow Leopard that makes your Mac's hard drive wind to a screeching halt before hitting the gas and returning to warp speed once again.

Using the announcement to stealthily issue a biting critique of both Apple and Snow Leopard, The Inquirer addressed Apple's admission and proposed fix this morning.

In a statement, Apple said that a feature in Snow Leopard causes the hard drive to "pause"... a problem that is more like what other PC users call a crash and it is bloody annoying. Like most Apple confessions of poor quality, its statement says that the problem of philosophical Macbooks only affects a small number of users. In other words it's just those Mac computers that believe in "thinking differently", just like Steve Jobs has always told them to.

Rather than patch its shoddy software workmanship, Apple has instead released what it calls a "performance update", presumably because making a computer work right improves its performance. Snow Leopard was supposed to be to Leopard what Windows 7 was to Vista, however it is proving to have even more bugs than its predecessor.

This non-patch patch comes as hundreds of complaints recently hammered Apple from Snow Leopard users who once again began reporting a bug that wipes clean all data from the main profile after logging into a guest account on their computer. Apple said that issue only occurred “in extremely rare cases.” Nonetheless, Apple is actively working to fix the problem.

While eliminating the data-deletion bug remains an obstacle to conquer, the new "performance update" is at least proving to Snow Leopard users that Apple is taking steps to work out the kinks that we all knew were there long before Apple was willing to admit it.